Mystery Person Tampers with Testing Kit

Is someone else at Emma Dishaw’s school using her glucose testing kit when she’s not around? Her mother says yes, and the school is now looking into the situation.

11-year-old Emma has had type 1 diabetes for about three years. She keeps a blood glucose testing meter at Rawson Elementary in South Milwaukee to check her blood sugar during the day and has a separate meter at home for nights and weekends. She never takes the first device home, and it is supposed to be locked in the nurse’s office when she’s not using it.

“I have to test my blood sugars at least three times a day,” says the fifth grader.

Emma’s family has had to purchase a new blood glucose meter for Emma to use at school, and Emma will have to undergo regular blood tests for the next six months to ensure she hasn’t been given any bloodborne diseases via an accidentally shared needle. If she has contracted a disease from this mystery person, his or her actions could haunt the young girl for the rest of her life.

Jodie says she’s feeling anxious, nervous, and sad for her daughter, who already has to go through the difficult process of managing her diabetes. This issue has only made her diagnosis that much harder to bear.

“That person needs to be removed,” she says. “They could compromise Emma more. They could compromise other children.”

The school district has investigated the situation, and the superintendent says it’s unlikely that someone else was tampering with Emma’s device. The investigation looked into potential problems of “unauthorized use,” “access,” “mechanical issues with the device,” and “possible tampering with the data’s time stamp.”

"Always Be Prepared" and 8 More Helpful Tips from Parents of Children with Diabetes: Click “Next” below!

Elizabeth Nelson is a wordsmith, an alumna of Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, a four-leaf-clover finder, and a grammar connoisseur. She has lived in west Michigan since age four but loves to travel to new (and old) places. In her free time, she. . . wait, what’s free time?

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